LOS ANGELES (KNX) – A tornado tore through Montebello Wednesday, leaving a tear of destruction in its wake. While the National Weather Service issued a brief tornado warning Tuesday night, there wasn’t one issued the morning of the weather event.
Ryan Kittel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said this is due to the radar equipment in L.A.
“They’re all mounted up on the mountain…so that we can actually get coverage and get data for all the area.” he said. “Back Midwest, where they don't have a lot of terrain, they could put those radars right on the ground and see what's happening at the ground.
Kittel said the mountain radar locations obscure these lower-level views, where tornados form.
“We can only see if the storm itself is spinning and if that's the case, then it could produce a tornado,” he said. “But it's actually so rare if we get a super cellular thunderstorm that's spinning, it doesn't necessarily always give a tornado. In fact, most of the time it doesn't. So that's the big drawback because our radar is up in the mountains. We just can't see a tornado.”
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